Employee Termination Checklist [modified]

[Bassam Abdul Baki]

Not everyone who's being sacked will offer a word of support or wait another minute to follow company rules. What are they going to do, fire you twice?

[Fabio Franco]

John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:

1-voting low-rep retard strikes again...

Laughing my a** off.

[greldak]

Re-assign anyone reporting to him Wish him good luck for the future

[Rajesh R Subramanian]

Not everyone? So, I'm suggesting that you take the feedback from the rest who is willing to offer. Is this really something that should be debated on? I've work to do.

"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.

[Bassam Abdul Baki]

True, but you're thinking like a manager or a rational employee. As far as I recall, I don't remember anyone who got fired and offered the company feedback. Not that I knew more than a few since most everyone quits before becoming problematic. However, the few that I knew who got fired where escorted out the door within the hour, only as long as it took to pack their stuff.

Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:

Is this really something that should be debated on? I've work to do.

Why so angry? Anything is up for discussion.

[Rajesh R Subramanian]

Sometime during the peak of recession, I was fired along with 300 other people. The company did an exit interview for all of them, and while some didn't want to do it, nearly half of them had feedback to provide. They all worked under the same group, which was run by a a crap director and a few crappier managers. The HR and the higher level management didn't know about the problems those employees had been facing through their employment -- availability of software, better computers, unavailability of hardware like network tap, some of the leave policies being overridden by the managers, some benefits not being passed on to the team, etc., Nobody wanted to talk about any of those problems during their employment as they were afraid of their jobs due to the condition of jobs and economy then. However, they did open up. The company changed several of their policies, and sacked a few more people including the director and some managers (that, for good measure). The parent group company finally merged this company into another bigger one, and the policies and employment terms were further reinforced, supporting open door policy. I hear they're doing good now. "Many people generally may not give feedback" is not a reason for sending off someone without offering to conduct an exit interview. If they don't want to give it, they can go. But if they do offer to give an exit interview, it should be beneficial to the company. If someone had been paying me for a long time, I'd be grateful and offer them an exit interview even if they had sacked me. I can always find a better job.

Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:

Why so angry? Anything is up for discussion.

I couldn't worry enough to become 'angry' on this, but I felt that the strong negative reaction against a proper suggestion made by me was utterly pointless.

"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.

[Bassam Abdul Baki]

Sacking 300 people is not usually considered firing, but downsizing. When that happens, yes, you feel bad, but not angry. I think everyone here, myself included, were talking about when an individual gets fired. Like I said, I've only seen it happen a few times, but when it does, they're normally escorted out almost immediately. Update: Also, I've been laid off before (and rehired) because a project was not renewed and they had nothing else in the works to offer. When that happens, yes, I generally have an exit interview and I don't feel bad about it.

[Member 2793522]

Then work and stop wasting your company's dollars.

[SeattleC]

Unless you caught this guy actually stealing from you, remember that they were a valued employee at one time, and treat them with respect. It's ok to separate an employee because they didn't fit in with the culture, or didn't work hard enough, or were too difficult to get along with. Just remember that they are a human being. And remember that they know 20 other techies. If your separation interview is gentle and polite, the guy will remember that. If you have a uniformed security guy stand over them while they put stuff in a box, and frog-march them out the door, the only thing they will ever say about your company is what a**holes you were at the end. If the termination is gentle and respectful, they will report that to their friends. It's a small world, and you may want those friends to work for you someday. Oh, and have some packing boxes available for termination day. The average engineer accumulates a ton of clutter; books, toys, sweaters and sneakers. It's quicker out the door if they have boxes to put this stuff in.

[Rajesh R Subramanian]

Member 2793522 wrote:

Then work and stop wasting your company's dollars.

Do you even know that I work for a company? Why bother posting codswallop and make yourself look silly?

"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.

[XDotNet]

It's not only an IT question. Take care of the IT questions yes, but on the human side, allow the person a measure of dignity, even if they don't deserve it. If you handle it well, you may be able to help this person improve by discussing their shortcomings, this person may be able to help you find your shortcomings as an employer. Dignity - I've heard of companies who do "perp walks" middle of the week, middle of the day with managers and 2 security guards escorting them out right through the cube farm. I've seen people rushed out of the building, not even allowed to take pictures of their kids home. C'mon you've just embarassed them to the worst degree. If they are a "standard termination", don't treat them like a criminal on COPS. They likely have social interaction with other co-workers outside of work. You've stripped them raw and with the security guards, you've made people question the character of the person being fired. One of my best friends was a police officer who gave me a ticket that I totally deserved one day. He is one of those rare enlightened individuals, we were playing golf some time after that and I asked him about the ticket his quote was "I look at every traffic stop as an opportunity to make a friend." He had 100's of friends in the community who would do anything to help. That is just as valuable for your future as protecting IT secrets.

A Cup empty of myself.

[smcnulty2000]

I've been on both sides of this. I read once that it isn't the people you fire that make your life miserable its the people you don't fire. We used to keep two checklists around; expedited and unexpedited departures. Some kind of checklist is helpful. This wouldn't be a bad place to peruse. http://www.businesstown.com/people/firing.asp[^] Or you might pick up a book on HR that walks through it. It is well worth researching a little beyond the conversations you'll have about it because of the legal implications of doing it wrong, or the specific impact to the other employees. If your company creates a policy and then doesn't follow it that could also be trouble, so you want something that makes as much sense as possible. From personal experience I'd say the things people forget the most are the things that fall into "Other Duties as Required" on the job description. Such as taking care of a particular inventory, like the software license inventory. They aren't likely to threaten to go to the SBA over software licensing are they? Some jobs are minor but have a big impact if they aren't done. In general I think little jobs like that should be handled more formally so that if someone does leave, voluntarily or not, you don't have a drop in service. If someone leaves you should ideally be able to know within a short time what was on their plate. Your accounting department should know if they had access to a corporate credit card or cell phone and there should be a procedure in place for employees who work with an expense account, any benefits continuance, that sort of thing. If the employee did any purchasing you have to close off those elements so they don't order up a laptop or something at your expense. Not that you couldn't prosecute but why put yourself there? If the employee was responsible for getting rid of old equipment you'll have to reassign that. This is the sort of thing that usually slips through the cracks. I was once let go after I'd been put on a committee to get our company into HIPPA compliance. Imagine how that could go if I had been disgruntled? I'm usually gruntled when I leave a company.

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